Post-mortem - Current Thoughts and Foreshadowing of the MWL by Guest Author Asher Stulman

StimHack.com
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Here’s the thing: players are going to play the cards they think are most likely to help them win the most against the matchups they expect to see. That’s how competitive games work. If we simply put the good cards of today on the list, then tomorrow rational actors will attempt to substitute the next highest VAR card, or if none can be found, then you keep using it (hello Astro / Clone Chip), paying the tax by switching to a slightly less optimal card somewhere else. In the Internet era, especially with a game focused on networked communications, it’s silly to think that consensus won’t be formed around a replacement set of cards (and tactics) pretty rapidly.

If “is used in too many of the top decks” is the dominant criteria for inclusion in the MWL, then we will eventually arrive at all of the good cards being on the list.

If the card is simply too powerful, rebalance it using mechanisms already present on the card, i.e. if it is too good out of faction, increase the influence cost. If there is a combination of cards that is simply too powerful, but in isolation the pieces are fine, restrict them.

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I can see your point but would it be that bad? After MWL was announced, I saw MWL-compatiable decklists on NetrunnerDB within hours and I tweaked all my main decks that night (maybe an hour?). I could be too willy-nilly in my deck construction/tweaking but a few card changes (adding 2-3, removing 1-2) wouldn’t seem to be that bad. Guess, I’m hoping for quick turn-around because this an experiment (and a good one, rather have MWL than not), but it should be treated as an early experiment and thus iterated on quickly to improve imho.

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The most professional thing to do is wait for SC season to be over, unfortunately.

We already have to differentiate whether an SC result was pre or post MWL this year.

Have fun with it. Throw caution to the wind and play Mushin decks like PE or Mandatory Upgrades. Things are shaping up to be Fastro, RP, or die at this point and Caprice will be dumped within a couple months due to PolOp. The funny thing is that these Wyldcakes decks can totally slot one copy and force one into play if need be with Deja Vu or a good draw. Or Film Critic too.

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Why is Criminal blowing four influence on a card that needs recursion they don’t have?

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I’m disappointed in the article. When I saw the title, “Current Thoughts and Foreshadowing of the MWL,” I thought it was going to be thoughts about how the MWL affects the current meta, and foreshadowing of what trends might come about with the MWL, maybe based off some cards we know are coming down the pipe (PolOp, f’rex).

Instead it’s “here are cards I think belong on the MWL.” As if we don’t have enough of that here as it is.

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Because they zero reasonable ways to deal with tollbooth, archangel, turing, crick, etc.

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My point exactly. This would be the most logical way of doing it.

Instead, Damon takes a dump all over the Ifluence mechanics, proving that he really doesn’t understand influence at all - and we get Ghost Influence, the magnum opus…

EDIT: You’re also dead right about the game devolving into an endless cycle of “problem cards.”

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Legate_Damar, would you consider it more (or less?) in line with the spirit of the game to errata the MWL cards all to be neutral cards that each have an influence cost one higher than what’s printed?
(e.g., Leela and Noise each pay 4 influence for a Desperado)

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Desperado doesn’t belong in this list at all. It’s like beating a man tied to a chair…

Having said that, I think it would actually be perfectly reasonable - and definitely still work within the system itself - for these cards to be reprinted or errata into neutral cards with higher influence.

They have proven the are willing to errata cards with Net Pavillion.

My primary concern - above and beyond even balance - is the integrity of the game’s mechanics. Damon has circumvented the core mechanics of the game by fiat. The MWL destroys the core concepts of Influence and Factions.

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Cool, that verifies that I understand where you are coming from.

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Seems to me that your example of ‘one per deck and parasite 4/5 influence’ is the heavy handed take compared to the MWL.

Balancing a game with this many variables is increadibly difficult. Care has to be taken so that one does not crush an entire playstyle out of existance. I.e. NBN fast advance dies in a black hole.

I would much prefer they make smaller adjustments and then proceed as needed, rather than swatting whole archetypes and playstyles into the trash.

League of Legends is an example. They make small adjustments to their game of 1 million+ variables and tweak downwards things that are too oppressive. And even with that, there are still times when something becomes oppressive out of the shadow of other issues [league of cleavers comes to mind].

Regardless, my opinion is that the MWL is a unique solution and I will see how the metagame adjusts. It has only been 2 weeks and there are always strong decks. Corps have to react to how faust is dominating and we might see the biggest shift in ice spreads since katman.

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How, exactly? Almost every single piece of ice costs Faust 2-3 cards at the most. The few that do tax Faust more cards are almost entirely STR 5 or higher - making it a trivial matter to simply David through them.

Wraparound? As easily dealt with as installing Corroder or Inti.

ICE that can’t be broken by AI? Most of them are low-strength Killers, and that’s what Mimic is for.

Program trashing? Say hello to Retrieval Run…

(Notice how all of these options are Anarch cards?)

I think it’s going to be very difficult to deal with Faust…

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you know how we dealt with faust pre-MWL ?
By playing cost-efficient HB Ices, the same who got hit by MWL.

If Eli / Architect were widely played like before MWL, we won’t see that much faust decks around.

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I don’t disagree with you, but the thing is that those ice were taxing to all runners, not just anarchs. Those ice were a problem for other reasons, but those have already been stated a thousand times over.

The meta will evolve, and there will always be “oppressive” cards, but that doesn’t mean those cards can’t be dealt with. First it was Emergency Shutdown (way back in the day when it was first released), and I liken this to the Faust situation. There was 1-2 Shutdown in every runner deck for half the cycle, and 3 in crims. It was deemed overpowered because the Corp did not have many tools they have now (Caprice and Crisium on HQ), so the Corp meta game adapted to the prevalence of E Shutdown by playing cheaper ice and being cautious with thier big ice rezzes.

I’m not saying that Shutdown and Faust are similar cards, or do similar things, but I feel the Corp meta will change in a different way to account for it, and people freaking out about how good Faust is right now is not needed. The meta will even itself out, and it will all be ok.

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I disagree with pretty much the entire article.

Any perceived problem with Faust ubiquity can be fixed rather easily. Remove Lady and Prepaid Voicepad from the MWL (they should not be on there).

Problem solved.

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Faust is fine in a vacuum, it’s issue is that it is in the wrong faction. Faust made a deal with the devil for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasure, neither of these are anarch motivations. Being backed up by parasite, David, datasucker, wyldcakes, and the rest of the anarchy good stuff makes Faust too oppressive.

Criminal is the faction of acquiring wealth and knowledge (expose effects), so Faust should have been the faction’s first AI breaker.

Runners should need to spend a bulk of their influence on building or supporting their rig. Anarchs don’t need to do that now. However, if Faust were blue, they’d need to spend 4 influence to import two copies of it which means it wouldn’t find a place in noise, but could enable innovative decks in other anarch IDs. Criminal would still need to import card draw to enable the card, as well as supplementing it with anti-ai hate breakers.

The MWL was a good idea in theory, but poor in implementation. Errata would have worked just fine. My errata ideas:

Astro - take a page from the other 3/2 agendas that get counters and only gain the counter if it’s over advanced. You could still FA it off a sansan as a blank 3/2, but you now have the option to make it a 4/2 with more FA potential.

SSCG - An archetype defining card should be worth at least 4 influence. Errata to 4 influence. This brings it in line with other archetype defining cards like Scorched, Caprice, and Biotic.

Eli, Architect, Clone Chip, Parasite, PPVP, NAPD Contract - Each costs one more influence to import, doesn’t cost influence in faction.

Desperado - remove from list, make better consoles for criminal. If it absolutely must be limited in some way, make it either the first run each turn or only be for runs on Central servers.

Yog - Code gates are supposed to be the faction’s worst match up. Errata to cost 1 credit to break a sub, +1 influence to import, and 2 strength. Or keep the strength as is and make it 2 credits per sub and +1 influence to import.

Lady - barriers are inefficient but doable for the faction and all the dogs should have been identical in cost, influence, strength, etc. Make it like Rex (and boost Cujo while we’re at it).

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So, make Yog terrible? I don’t like that. Anarch is supposed to also be the faction of efficient fixed strength breakers. Yog breaking for more than $0 just makes it bad at current stats. And adjusting stats off-card is wonky as shit.

Look, errata is not more elegant or less heavy-handed than MWL. You all arguing this are just wrong. Like, objectively so. An entire set of new rules per card, rather than just knocking off influence per copy, is waaaay more complex. Period.

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the argument clinic

“Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.”

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No it isn’t.

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I agree with you on the Faust stuff, but here’s why I disagree with the others, except astro, which is the best idea. I wouldn’t even care about the complex issues coming from errata there. The only issue being, sometimes it’s near impossible for the Corp to score anything unless it’s fast advanced, even by turn 5. Astro is sometimes balanced, which speaks more to the unfairness of certain runner decks.

SSCG Now actually costs 4 influence, it just costs nbn an additional influence. It’s a tricky powerful card to play early, you can create awful scoring windows with sansan alone, and essentially dictate the pace of the game if you know the runner must trash it. It’s a powerful fast advance tool, in the fast advance faction, I think it’s fine the way it is now.

You agree that NAPD and PPVP require 1 influence no matter what, but allowing those other cards to be unrestricted in faction means that every HB deck is most likely going to play eli and architect as three ofs, which is the intent of the MWL to prevent. Clone Chip and parasite are the most damning unfair combination of cards, playing them both as 6 influence is just enough to give a person pause as to whether to put them together in a deck. Being able to play both at only a 3 influence cost deters almost nothing and no one. Unless you’re Criminal of course.

The problem with desperado is that it’s still reasonable for other factions to play it as their console. Have you played against Valencia with 3 desperado? It’s blatantly unfun. It’s not totally unreasonable for criminal to pay 3 influence for the desperado, and I’m sure they’ll get something to fix them sooner or later, but the bigger problem is out of faction use I think.

Yog doesn’t need to be terrible, nuff said.

Lady at 1 strength would invalidate using it as a breaker I think, especially since its limited in use. I agree that cujo needs a boost, but lady can still get a lot of mileage out of scavenge, and you can always stack barriers if you’re worried about a lady. It’s the least strong of the MWL choices, but it is still better than importing corroder for shaper